Let us start with some facts first;
This WAS a large shopping mall and picture this if you can that every abandoned store is now full of classic vehicles and the mall walkways as well!
There are 400 unrestored barn finds in the Mall
Room to store 1400 cars inside.
They sell cars on consignment and store cars for those without garages.
Every Wednesday there is a cruise in and open house.
2800 paved lighted parking spots outside, can you say car show venue?
A Holiday Inn Hotel has an entrance right into the Mall!
HEMI's behind glass
In all the years CARHUNTER has never seen so many unrestored Barn Finds in one place!
I finally found my way here because it was on the way and I needed to take a driving break. I have tried to get some back story on the venture, but it seems the identities of the principals and person who started this is to be kept a secret?
I did some digging and think I have the story, but will respect the desires to remain anonymous. Here is what I came up with a principal in the LLC that paid $3.65 million is the son (junior) of the gentleman that collected the 400 barn finds! I am piecing it together so I may be wrong although I doubt it. I did try to contact someone, but no one responded so this is my story and I and sticking to it unless corrected!
The senior started out owning a transportation company of fuel oil and skip ahead got heavily involved in real estate. Trucking around and dealing in real estate sounds like a great way to find old cars!
The gentleman passed away in 2011, one can assume the estate contained 400 barn finds, properties and a decent sum of money. The mall was purchased in late 2011 and the collection was moved in while the future plans developed.
Preserving a collection like this and sharing it is certainly something to be proud of, if I got the story correctly?
I am sorry the rugs were all sold
Did you notice they are actually organized by make, these were all Plymouth
I assume the signage will be removed at one point, but no Dinettes left in here!
Like I said a Holiday inn is adjoining
A row of Cadillac's and LaSalle's
The Food Court is still in place and lets see how that will be utilized in the future? All the restrooms are clean and operational throughout the mall.
Talk about an old school barn find!
This is one crazy little hot rod
Like I said little!
This was crazy, I am not sure there has ever been so many commercial vehicles in one place of this vintage, it was impressive!
If you can I would strongly recommend a visit here they are open weekdays, half day on Saturday with the Wednesday Cruise Night and by appointment too!
The more I look the more I find the oddest cars that were built in small quantities or kit cars trying to be a retro antique modern car is that an oxymoron?
A wood body kit car, get it Splinter?
It showed up in 1982 and this one turned up on ebay in 2018!
George Barris was flat towing car with his own 1953 Lincoln Capri when this happened!
It looked like this before the accident
This famous custom inspired the split fins on the Golden Sahara build for the owner Jim Street on the 2nd build Golden Sahara II
It is a little hard to follow, but Barris decided to build the Golden Sahara out of the mangled Lincoln in the 50's
This was version I and the car actually could be driven remotely so it may have been the first self driving car?
Not a fan of Barris, but this pretty cool!
A whopping $25,000 in this baby!
In the 60's Barris updated it into the Golden Sahara II
It is unclear when it was the property of Jim Street or Barris, but there are the split fins on version II!
That is Jerry Lewis being chauffeured to the ball in the movie Cinderfella!
The only car to appear as contestant on I have a secret!
This was a refrigerator
What is with all the toaster ovens in the trunk?
The car disappeared sometime in the 1980's and this is what it looked like when recently discovered!
The hammer dropped for $350,000 still in need of a complete restoration!
More confusion a Kaiser emulating the Golden Sahara II named VooDoo Sahara!
It started here
It started here
It ended here!
Say hello to the 1953 Lincoln XL-500
I bet you were thinking it was just a drawing?
This car lived an exciting life and I believe it's whereabouts are unknown today- will it surface in a junkyard around Detroit was it crushed or is it in the back of a Ford warehouse?
This car lived an exciting life and I believe it's whereabouts are unknown today- will it surface in a junkyard around Detroit was it crushed or is it in the back of a Ford warehouse?
Ford liked to call them experimental and the X car program gave us quite a few exciting cars
Look close that is a push button shifter in the center of the wheel
OK it's time to address the Dagmars on the front bumper, many do not know the names origin?
Meet Virginia Ruth Egnor a model and actress who's first job was modeling sweaters, not a far stretch (well maybe for the sweater). She was hired as a regular on a show called Broadway Open House and was instructed to act dumb, she did, she wasn't. A typical one liner; what is a Mushroom? She replies " A place to make love". She got her own show and really was one of the first female stars of TV. She was given the name Dagmar on that show and if I have to explain the connection with the bumper above please note the emergency exits are on either side of the plane! The name Dagmar was derived from a TV show named Mama where a young actress named Robin Morgan played the younger sister named Dagmar Hanson below.
No she was not a Blonde in the show Talk about irony in full swing, the young actress Robin Morgan grew up to be a woman's activist so it is kind of funny that her TV name is now associated with a kind of sexist reference on a car.
This is the famous Dagmar!
This is the famous Dagmar!
Dagmar, Dagwood?
Dagwood is associated with a really big sandwich and just ponder this for minute Dagwood Bumstead of the comic strip Blondie had a pretty Blonde wife and giant sandwich. . Hold on there Nellie, so there was a pretty Blonde and something was big? Just a funny observance, keep it clean here!
Just one more sidetrack, one of the definitions of Dag is a character, eccentric and a person with a good sense of humor so enjoy some laughter will ya! Wow that was a an unexpected sidebar even for me!
Back to the XL-500
Dagwood is associated with a really big sandwich and just ponder this for minute Dagwood Bumstead of the comic strip Blondie had a pretty Blonde wife and giant sandwich. . Hold on there Nellie, so there was a pretty Blonde and something was big? Just a funny observance, keep it clean here!
Back to the XL-500
What a special time when there was a excitement and look into some future cars back then. look at these old concept cars and you will see many features incorporated into cars years later!
Japanese tin car makers loved to make up some replicas of US cars and here is the sneaky XL-500 replica
Remember this is how it was written on craigslist someplace!
I could not resist this photo from ebay first of a slot car for sale!
Your guess is he selling the UTV thing, a pressure washer or that thing on the table?
HUH?
Why do people also put $1 as the asking price, does it mean they want US Currency? This one below unedited and pasted here as it was put on craigslist. I don't have a clue if he selling something or not! Hey tell this guy parting out a car usually gets you more money then selling a junk car if you do it right!
Your rusty car is not worth $5K - $1
(New Jersey)
"Regardless of what the dipsh*t on American
Pickers, and Gas Monkey garage says on TV your rusted out sh*t box that hasn't
run since Reagan was in office is not worth $5K. Sorry to inform you.
You need to turn off your TV. You can put it on ebay, and quickly find this out for yourself when you STILL don't sell it.
A car, truck, or bike that doesn't run is called a parts car... or, a parts bike.
That means they are only worth the sum of their parts. So just because some paid actor a@@hole on TV says a Jeep CJ is worth $10K that doesn't mean he knows his ars from a hole in the wall about car collecting or what individual projects are worth.
Not even when you factor in inflation is your rusty non running project car worth anywhere near those prices.
Stop driving up the prices of junk or get used to people telling you to go f*&k yourself."
You need to turn off your TV. You can put it on ebay, and quickly find this out for yourself when you STILL don't sell it.
A car, truck, or bike that doesn't run is called a parts car... or, a parts bike.
That means they are only worth the sum of their parts. So just because some paid actor a@@hole on TV says a Jeep CJ is worth $10K that doesn't mean he knows his ars from a hole in the wall about car collecting or what individual projects are worth.
Not even when you factor in inflation is your rusty non running project car worth anywhere near those prices.
Stop driving up the prices of junk or get used to people telling you to go f*&k yourself."
Some folks think they are funny.
I could not wait and I had to show this photo of the underside of a T'Bird for sale on craigslist!
I like to call this the pretzel twist exhaust!
This guy ran flex pipe from the stock pipes to midway down the rear of the car then lopped it out to the rockers back up front and into a set of side pipes down the sides again!
You got to love the band strap hangers and I am guessing each side exhaust path turns out to be longer than the car itself!
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